What I didn’t realize about burnout before I experienced it was that it can happen while doing something that you love. I was a public school music teacher, and I loved my job – the kids were wonderful and so much fun to work with. But I had a terrible principal who was a bully, and who would not let me do my job. I loved the kids, so I didn’t want to leave…but I ended up burning out instead.

You’re right – things are never the same after the full burnout. I won’t ever teach in a public school again. Now I know how to recognize the signs of burnout, and I pull back when I need to. I’m glad you didn’t let it get to the point where you experienced a full burnout, and you realized that you needed to make time for yourself.

As a mom of boys in sports, wife to a husband with severe OCD, a business owner and blogger, and a Christian in a Bible study each week during the school year…I’ve definitely reached burn out! It’s an awful feeling and hard to break out of! And yes, easy to fall into again!

You and I are on the same page! As a pastor, a father, a husband to someone who struggles with mental illness, a former public school teacher, and a blogger/business owner I can honestly tell you I over did it. Rest, as biblically taught, should be one of the first things we schedule. Thank you for sharing your story! I would love to further the conversation.

Our lives are filled with challenges. Some are easier to overcome than others. From time to time, I would meet a challenge or too that would really exhaust me mentally and physically. My way to overcome these challenges are to reward myself to get a bit of an emotional boost. Usually a great meal with some good companies will do it.

I could find myself in the functional burnout, every word seems right for me. I was once totally desperate since all the bad things come at once, usually things that I put 100% of my effort to obtain turned out to be not as my expectation, they even became worse and worse. I was afraid of facing the reality. But I found it is neccessary to overcome this, thanks to your sharing. Thank you! 🙂

I know that sometimes we take on too many things that we cannot possibly accomplish all on our own. And yet we keep trying. And then the burnout just creeps up one day and then we feel like everything is a bit overwhelming. One little thing more and we snap. It is subtle and you need to watch for it.

You know when you get to that point it’s really important to get a good support system. I burnt out too… I ended up with a really bad mental breakdown. A support system and the realization that we are human and can fail, fall, and get exhausted is really important. Now I try to pace myself and give myself the time to decompress.

I think you hit something incredibly important. A support system is imperative to successful living. I believe the stronger the system of support the better chance you have to have victory in your life. Thank you for sharing!

I love your comparison of burn-out to a ninja – I feel like it suddenly hits me because of the silence. I literally one day just want to stop everything and it’s all because I’m not being cautious to the burn-out

Thank you for writing this! I can relate to this as an educator because it’s so easy to get burnout in that field as well as others. Thank you for sharing your experience with this with us and some of the ways burnout can manifest itself!

Personally, the mistake I made that led to my burnout five years ago was wasting so much energy on pretending that I was okay. Nobody suspected anything until I was incapable of even getting out of bed for weeks. It’s insane in retrospect. I was too ashamed to ask for help and instead chose to work myself into the ground.

I did the same thing. I spent several years pretending I was ok. Honestly, I was not ok. I had to give myself permission to not be ok. It was the hardest thing to admit to myself and my family. Now, I am on the up and up. Thank you for sharing your story!

Yes, I have reached functional burnout more times than I care to admit! I know a lot of people at my job have reached this type of burnout as well. I think the key to avoiding it is to a.) take a rest or do something you enjoy that is relaxing! b.) Draw from the Well of Jesus, who gives everlasting waters to us.

Having the feeling of get close to the edge of burning out happens to everyone like anyone person who writers or bloggers. I have my moments every couple of months and I take a break for a little while and I feel better for it.

I agree! I would love to add one point. If you are a frequent visitor of burnout it may be time to change the routine that pushes you there. Life was never meant to be lived at lower levels. Thank you for sharing your story!

Interesting post that we need to take seriously cause you never can tell the extent of damage burning out can do to us, so to me i feel one should learn to know the extent of what he or she can take so as not to suffer from full burnout.

I understand your point. I have a question though. If you push yourself to your limits won’t you need to burnout to know where your limit was? I like the idea of keeping myself fit and rested so that I can complete the marathon of life. Thank you for sharing!

Very good information! I myself experienced burnout after working 90 hours a week for almost a year. I had to take a serious look at my situation and realized it wasn’t worth it. I now only work part time and I make sure to include “me time” at least once a week!

I was working a lot of hours as well. I was running a church, caring for my kids, taking care of my wife (who has a mental illness), and working a full-time job. All this while trying to start my own business to get rid of the full-time job. It almost killed me! I am happy to be on the mend and a little wiser. Thank you for sharing your story.

Great post. Both my partner and I suffered burnout last year, largely as a result of a business we were putting our heart and soul into. ..but it was failing miserably. It was a terrible disconnect with me as a health and fitness professional who was getting stuck all the time. I knew the reason why but I thought I needed to try and push on a bit more because all our hard work would surely start posting off soon. I was still eating incredibly well but my body was churning through the nutrients as a result of stress. For us, our burnout resulted in us moving to a different country and into a different lifestyle. It’s not a fast thing to recover from but you can get better. For us, the medical explanation behind it is centred on adrenal depletion so we have been gradually working on rebuilding the health of our adrenal glands – work in progress 😊

Burnout is something that we all act like we don’t experience. But I definitely hit my burnout point in February and I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t real. I wasn’t better until I took a step back from my blog, reevaluated, and decided a few months later to even get back into blogging full-time again. Burnout is real and we need to stop acting like being busy is such an amazing thing!

I did the same thing. I stopped blogging for a few months. I had to. My life was crazy, is crazy, and I had to take a step back. I was in a functional burnout pushing hard towards a complete burnout. Thank you for sharing.

Was not aware of all the different types of burnout… just burnout… i’ve gone through that before and just needed to take sometime to re-energize myself… now I protect myself against… of course just having open heart surgery has helped slow me down a bit… 🙂

I am sorry to hear that you had open heart surgery. I will send a prayer up for you. I find that when we won’t slow down the body has a way of slowing us down. I am grateful to hear that you are on the right course! Let me know how I can help!

Thank you for taking the time to check it out. I think we lump everything into categories. I know I did. When I started reading and researching I came to the conclusion that burnout had to have multiple levels. It couldn’t be so cut and dry. I knew I had burnt out, but I was not completely gone. That is when I started thinking about functional burnout.

Burnout can happen to anyone. I try to prevent burnout by stopping before something grinds me to the ground. For example, when writing reviews began not fun anymore, I stopped doing so many before I got burned out.

I feel you on this! I sometimes struggle with the promotion of my blog. I love writing and interacting with people. Constantly having to post links in many places can drain me. So, I am on the same page here with you! Thank you for sharing.

Thank you for sharing this article. I have also had a burnout that cost me almost a year on sickleave. At some point you cannot ignore the signals and you cannot keep living outside of your body – no chance. To day im on the other side of the battle itself but it will always be another me – a new way of living and working.

Thank you for sharing your story. I often think about what I could have done differently. For starters, I could have admitted that I wasn’t Superman. I thought I could handle whatever life threw at me. I was wrong. Keep pressing into healing Kristine!

For me, I believe that to avoid a burnout, I just have to keep drawing from Jesus, the inexhaustible Source of energy and supply of grace. He has for me a fresh supply of grace every time the current wave of grace has been used up. Praise Jesus!

I appreciate your statement. I too believe that it is God’s grace that sustains us. Yet, when I read scripture I see a number of times when Jesus went off to lonely places to pray. He also spent time sleeping. So if Jesus took personal time to recharge shouldn’t we?

Recognition is the key to creating a plan that will help us prevent it. I think the greatest wisdom is admitting it could happen to anyone and then taking the correct steps to keep it from happening to me! Thank you for sharing.

I think there are a lot of parallels between what you describe here and other less-than-healthy states, and in my experience they often go hand-in-hand: mild depression, working in an unhealthy work environment, working under a boss who is a bully – I was in the last two for a year, and they led to the first one plus burnout – eventually my contract was up there and I left for a different job/work environment, but that was the beginning of the end for me in that career line. Now that I’ve gotten out and shifted gears completely, I’m so much happier! I hope your post is helpful for other people who are still in the process of realizing that something’s got to give, and the status quo is unsustainable.

You are so right! I think there is a lot of overlap between many disorders and unhealthy conditions. What separates them is the results they produce. Some will come more intensely than others. The key, as you shared, is recognizing them! Thank you for sharing your story!

I know a person holding a department head position in our place who has experienced a total burnout. I just couldn’t imagine it can happen to anybody. Sometimes, with our aim of reaching the top or aiming for more than we already have, could be one of the reasons for this. I am one of those people. I am dreaming of having a better life, that is why I am working as an employee and at the same time, I am always looking for online opportunities that could probably help me realized my goals. Sometimes, I don’t have time to socialize anymore. Your article helps me to reassess some of my actions. I will need to look deeply into this matter before it’s too late. Have a great day.

Thank you for sharing your story! I think you are wise in re-evaluating your actions. When we are isolated socially we will be isolated in life. When we become isolated we will burnout faster. Take time for you!

Awesome article about burnout! I could not agree more! I never realized I was burned out either. This article helped me identify the signs and that there is actually different types of burnout. It is helpful to know the signs and what to look for. Not only in other people but also yourself. Thanks for sharing!

Jim's mission in life is to help people taking their NEXT STEPS towards the life they truly desire. As a member of The John Maxwell Leadership Team, a military veteran, and a 15 year veteran of ministry Jim has the background and the ability to help you achieve your goals.